Patna: An official said on Sunday that "transactions to the tune of Rs 1 crore were being made to Pakistan almost daily" and that three people had been arrested in the Siwan district of Bihar on suspicion of running an international hawala racket.
The cyber police station in the Siwan district has filed a first information report, according to Superintendent of Police Shailesh Kumar Sinha.
"We learnt that some persons of Gopalganj district assembled at the house of Harendra Singh in Brahma Asthan village and kept Hawala money. Accordingly, we raided the place on Saturday and arrested Sheikh Salim (Gopalganj), Rajesh Kumar (Gopalganj) and Manu Kumar (Siwan)," the police officer said.
However, three others, including kingpin Raj Kumar Sharma and his lieutenants Vishwajeet Kumar and Aftab, were able to evade capture.
The police have recovered a rifle, a revolver, a Mahindra SUV, 19 debit cards, one credit card, Rs 2.67 lakh cash, 6 mobile phones, a swipe machine, laptop, a digital camera, 22 SIM cards, PAN cards, and a large number of passbooks.
During interrogation, it was revealed that several of them had been to Saudi Arabia in search of employment and met up with other individuals there, including Pakistanis.
After they returned from Saudi Arabia, they started the Hawala racket in Siwan.
"They obtained passbooks of the under-privileged villagers and used to receive money from other countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. After taking the commission, they convert it to any other foreign currency and send them again to different countries," Sinha said.
"They used to transfer money with the same modus operandi to Pakistan to the tune of Rs 1 crore almost every day. We are taking the help of cyber experts to know where they have sent money so far. The bank transfer and exchange of money is under investigation," Sinha said.
The officer continued by saying that they are attempting to apprehend Raj Kumar Sharma, the kingpin.
"He will put some more light on this international nexus. There could be terror funding links as well," Sinha said.—Inputs from Agencies